Shane Chalke has arrived from the south, on a yearly migration that finds the jazz instrumentalist playing in Florida during the winter months and returning to the cooler climes of the High Country every spring.
Chalke has begun his mountain residency here with weekly appearances by his band, B.E. Jazz, along with shows lined up with his other musical outlet in the Swing Set jazz band.
Every Wednesday evening, Chalke and B.E. Jazz perform at the Sushi Club in downtown Banner Elk, just outside of Boone. And, this week, Swing Set will be performing at the Blowing Rock gazebo on Sunday.
More information about these upcoming gigs can be found on our Nightlife listings page 23.
A retired mathematician who was once based in Northern Virginia, Chalke stumbled upon the High Country on a motorcycle ride and decided to make this area his home. Well, at least one of his homes. The migration to Florida has become an annual adventure, leaving for the cooler mountain air as things get steamy in the Sunshine State.
“This is where you want to be in the summertime, no doubt about that,” said Chalke. “What I tell folks is I play for Florida people in the winter, and I play for Florida people in the summer, just in different states. I do see the same people in both places, sometimes. It’s crazy. I’ll run into people down in Sarasota who say, ‘Yeah, I saw you at the Sushi Club. I vacation up on Beech Mountain.’ I ran into a guy a few week ago in Sarasota who said, ‘I used to go to band camp at Lees-McRae College when I was in high school.’”
Jazz music lovers here in the High Country are a little different than in Sarasota as here it is more of a tourist mindset and a love for the standards.
“While I play a lot of the same stuff down there as I do up here, it is interesting because the audiences in Florida tend to be more jazz knowledgeable, partly because Sarasota is known as a jazz town with actual jazz clubs,” said Chalke. “Down there, I can get away with playing a bit more modern jazz. But, I might start experimenting and doing that here. There, I play more of the jazz from the 1960s like Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, John Coltrane and a little Chic Corea. I’m going to start bringing some of that up here and see how it goes. I think people will dig it more than I am guessing. I’ve been a little bit locked in here thinking that people just want to hear the same old jazz standards of the 1930s and ‘40s. I’m going to mix it up this year and see what the tolerance is for stuff that is a little more out there.”
Chalke has no desire to clear a room with any avant garde music that goes too far out on the Sun Ra limb. Still, there is wonderful music to be played that is not only fun, but just challenging enough to be interesting.
“I might mix in a little bit more music by Horace Silver, but definitely nothing by Pharaoh Sanders because people will walk out,” said Chalke, laughing. “People ask for all kinds of music. This past winter, I was playing at a really nice jazz club in Sarasota called Burns Court Café, a cool European-type of place. The owner of that club is a real jazz nut and he says, ‘I want you to play my favorite song.’ I said, ‘What is it?’ He says, ‘“Lonely Woman” by Horace Silver.’ I had never even heard of it. I asked all of my jazz buddies and no one had heard of it. I really had to dig deep to find it. Then, I started to play it and it is a beautiful piece.”
So, go to Youtube.com and in the search bar type in “Horace Silver Lonely Woman” and listen to this wonderful seven minutes of music. Silver plays it with his piano backed by drums and bass and it is smooth and haunting yet sweet. Chalke adds his muted trumpet to the mix, along with the improvisation of his band members. When you see Chalke with his B.E. Jazz group, ask nicely and he might even play it for you when the evening’s mood is right.
Posted on Jun 10, 2016 by Tom Mayer